BuddyPress.org

By default, BP group forums can be accessed at:
hxxp://example.com/forums/

If your external bbPress is also installed in /forums/, you’ll want to rename BP’s forums slug to something else.

You can do this by adding the following in your wp-config.php or bp-custom.php:
define( ‘BP_FORUMS_SLUG’, ‘group-forums’ );

In the example above, your BP forums can now be accessed at hxxp://example.com/group-forums/

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If you’re looking at theming your external bbPress install to match BuddyPress’ default theme, use the bbPress theme I mentioned above:
https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/buddypress-default-theme-for-bbpress-1

Buddypress is only a WP plugin. So if you know how to install wordpress and manage plugins you know how to install Buddypress. In your WP admin search buddypress in the new plugins dialog, install it. Then go into your themes and choose the buddpress theme. Thats it. Buddypress must have a buddypress theme. Click extend above and then themes for some theme options.

hnla said: “quick question, regarding the aspect of group blogs and group forums is there really a difference?”

No, there isn’t. That’s why I would consolidate everything on blog posts (no forum topics, status updates, etc.) and threaded comments (no wire etc.), the native WordPress way of structuring conversation. And then you can use Category and other built-in post options to differentiate between types of posts+threads and do different things with them.

“Defining a Social Network / Community”

At the core is a relational database with member data and content that is then presented and connected in different ways on the user interface.

Online community is an older term that usually referred to forums. Organization of the data is mainly by topic/content.

Social networking evolved from forums. Profile pages of the users came to the fore. Central point of organization became individual members.

Wordpress’ strength is still content management. Member management in WP is underdeveloped for social networking.

Hi Mr. Maz,

thanks a lot for all your great work at Buddypress. Your link-plugin is great.

Last weekend I was playing around with a friend on the link-component, and we had some ideas and questions, we would like to ask you:

1. How about adding sub-categories?

2. Is there a way to add custom-fields to links?

3. It would be great if your plugin would recognize the most common formats, like *.pls, *.mp3 … and display a play button for them.

Are you planning to add these features in the near future?

Thanks, Sven

As seen in other threads (and this one) I don’t think you can easily define a Social Network. People have different needs and desires when it comes to connecting with other people. Fundamentally, connecting is the only thing we’re all trying to do in one way or another.

Buddypress really is the kitchen sink. It offers everything you could want for a social network but without some careful planning for your specific community/target audience, BP could be a huge confusing mess.

This is what we’ve seen happening here on BP.org. Fundamentally, people want to come to this site to get information and help on BP. The forums are ideal for a support type of site with each thread being a question with answers, etc. That sort of interaction is difficult in an activity stream sort of model, especially if users aren’t fully immersed in the site. They come, ask their question, wait for an answer and leave until the next time they need help.

Groups are also handy in this sort of site as it allows people with similar interests to create a topic specific forum that doesn’t fit within the “main” forums. Instead of having one massive topic specific thread with many internal sub threads, they create their own group.

Activity streams are a huge mess on this sort of site and can add huge confusion. This isn’t really a socialization site where people are setting up their weekend plans or commenting on their buddy’s latest unfortunate event. That is where an activity stream comes in handy. I see it as being more for “personal connection” sites.

On BP.org, I don’t look at the main activity stream. I find it far to confusing and of little use. The Support index page is about the only place I go because I can see the latest questions and hot topics. It also shows me what public groups are currently getting a lot of traffic.

IMHO, the biggest missing piece in BP right now seems to be the connection between the activity stream and everything else. The activity stream needs to be more than just a content aggregator. Allowing people to comment on the activity stream implies that their response will be connected to the activity item. This is not currently the case and it is a huge usage nightmare.

Anyhoo, enough rambling. BP offers the tools but at the moment I can’t see many sites needing all of the features enabled.

@bhalun – BuddyPress doesn’t use an .exe file. If you used the manual download, simply extract the “buddypress” folder from the .ZIP file to your web server’s /wp-content/plugins/ folder.

Then login to the WP backend and click on “Plugins”, BuddyPress should show up. Simply click on “Activate”.

The plugin is BuddyPress Badge:
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-badge/

Does the groups mean users, or disscusions? I want to set this up right, and kinda want it like i had stuff setup when i was using phpbb, where it was based on permissions, and roles, and you had certain, categories and subforums…..

Permissions are automatically assigned. Group admins / mods can edit forum posts. Group members can’t.

You cannot setup sub-forums and categories with BuddyPress’ internal forums. Think Facebook’s group and page forums.

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also, how would i create themes for both? or where could i get themes for both that look similiar?

You cannot change the theme for BuddyPress’ internal forums. BuddyPress will use the BP theme you’re using to style your forums. However, if you want to style the forums differently, you’ll have to edit your BP theme. Try creating a child theme of the default and modifying the /forums/ and /groups/single/forum/ templates to your liking.

If you’re talking about a theme for the external version of bbPress, try this:
https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/buddypress-default-theme-for-bbpress-1

Have you upgraded your wordpress Mu to wpmu 2.9.2 or you are using the old version of wpmu below 2.9.

For now, you can simply rename wp-content/buddypress and you will be able to access the wp-admin. Let us know about your current configuration in details as mentioned here
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/when-asking-for-support

It has been made but I cant find the tread since its been changed.

My 2 cents: In my custom theme I try to consolidate everything around blogs and groups. I’m still on 1.1.3.

Blogs are of course WordPress strength. I’m trying to get to a social network with a greater emphasis on content, where possible via RSS and with front-end posting on blogs and groups to lower the threshold.

For the social networking aspect I need profile pages for members and some ways for members to interact with eachother, via internal mail, friending/following, joining eachothers groups and blogs.

Groups are Buddypress’ killer app imho. Buddypress has the potential to become a real collaboration platform around content, with endless real world applications in businesses, organizations and associations.

Buddypress has all the basic elements to achieve this, but the following are still huge annoyances and don’t look like they will be fixed any time soon:

– Member management is all over the place, in different pages under wp-admin, different database tables and different places on the front-end. Adding custom member data fields and integrating them with outside applications is complicated and inflexible. By design (!) there is no built-in way to reliably store separate firstname and lastname, which makes out-of-the-box BP useless for most businesses and organizations. There is little validation on sign-up form fields.

– No built-in privacy/security.

– Built-in forums are increasingly clashing with commenting on blogs and wires and the social networking structure. There is no reason to have old-fashioned forums in a next generation social network. You might as well integrate a WELL-style bulletin board system. Having a single sign-in option for people who want to use a forum on the side is great, but please stop weaving forums into Buddypress.

What Buddypress needs imho:

1. Consolidated member management; all member data stored in one place in the database, one page in wp-admin, one member profile page with “edit account settings” on the front end.

2. Content-focused member profile pages. Members should be able to use their profiles to introduce themselves and showcase their blogs and groups.

3. Conversation around blog posts and (threaded) blog comments, ideally with front-end posting like P2. There is no reason to have blog posts AND forum topics AND wire or whatever it’s called. Group blog should be a built-in feature.

4. End-user-friendly control over their groups and blogs, including privacy/security and front-end admin.

Summary:

– Members
– Blog posts
– Threaded comments

Presented in:

– Profile pages
– Blogs
– Groups

Help Us Help You

mmm might be in conflict with another plugin?

Some great points in this thread.

I think the whole concept of the ‘activity stream’ is best migrated into a per-user basis. By that I mean, I get to see the activity I care about. Groups that I follow, threads I’ve started or replied to (or even viewed often, as a sort of auto-subscribe), the activities of my friends and so on. When you have a community with thousands of active users, no one’s gonna be interested in every single new item except maybe the ones most deeply invested in the site, and even they will barely have time to skim-read through it all.

I found the new site-wide activity feed very confusing, especially since it pulls in not just threads, but replies. I have no interest in reading a snippet like “I’ll look into that” without a clue what the discussion is about.

If a site really believes that new users won’t be content just reading the latest blog posts before they dig after their items of interest on their own, they could just make a ‘featured activity’-page, which would work just like the personal activity stream except in public.

Heck, why not just make groups able to subscribe to content the same way users do? An example use case would be a developers group, where the developers could monitor particular activities that all devs should be aware of. This way, every item on BP that could be subscribed to would have both a ‘subscribe’ and ‘subscribe with group’ (for which you could select many of course).

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Now, as for the very activity stream of ‘updates’ itself, I never fancied this feature. The way I see it it’s just a lightweight forum, in which case it makes no sense to keep it separate from BP’s other forum component. The way I’d make an activity stream (or, simple microblogging rather) would be by tags. In my group the ‘microupdates’ plugin would be enabled. Now all I’d have to do would be to add the ‘update’ tag to a forum post whenever I wanted it to appear in the dedicated ‘microupdates’ feed. It’d probably also be integrated with twitter/identi.ca

For REAL microblogging with BuddyPress, I think a proper integration with StatusNet would be much more appropriate, seeing as this application can afford to thoroughly optimize microblogging (talking both performance and API) to the extent that it can be used with stand-alone applications.

It’s done with Flash, look at the HTML.

They used BBpress *outside* of BuddyPress.